A huge rush of news about StarCraft 2 has hit the gaming blogs today. We break …

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Blizzard is on full publicity mode today, with a number of sites posting preview stories and interviews with the people behind the game. StarCraft 2 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and with Blizzard promising a new version of Battle.net launching alongside the game and three single-player full-game releases instead of one game with three campaigns, there are many questions gamers have about the product. We've scoured everyone's coverage to try to pick out the surprising, the odd, and the downright cool details from each one, bringing you a gaggle of StarCraft news. Let's get started.

There may not be LAN play, and don't expect a console port

Rob Pardo is the VP of Game Design, and he had strong words for LAN play when he spoke with IncGamers. "We don't have any plans to support LAN," he told the site, also saying, "We will not support it."

The issue of a console port also came up. "We have tried in the past, we actually tried the original StarCraft on Nintendo 64. It works, it's playable, it's just such a different playability gameplay experience than on PC and we really don't want to have it be that different," they said. Pardo said the chances of the game coming to a console are "zero percent."

A lack of LAN play would be a serious omission to fans of the series; StarCraft is still a popular choice at LAN parties and gaming cafes around the world. There has to be some way to link up computers and play against each other without being online... right? StarCraft II lead producer Chris Sigaty and lead designer, Dustin Browder said they were still discussing it. That's not the most reassuring answer.

Expect huge, almost cinematic battles in single-player

"We have missions where the lowest level of the terrain gets flooded by lava every five minutes—if you don't get off low ground, you die. We've got missions where hordes of infested Terrans attack, but only at night," Browder told Destructoid. "You have to hold off at night, and then during the day, it's 'EVERYONE GO OUT AND KILL 'EM WHILE THEY SLEEP!' We've got missions where you're trying to defend an infested colony. We've got missions where you control a single Ghost, trying to change the tide of a war."

Even the units are different in the single player. "Like Medics? I've got a couple upgrades to the Medics that would blow them off the charts," Browder explained. "They'd never last in multiplayer—like it's way too powerful, so we could never do it. But in solo play, we can. That's why we don't have Medics in multiplayer, but we do in solo."

The goal is to use each level as a way to explore the game's mechanics, to create something almost like a minigame, and to feature things you won't see in multiplayer or in skirmish mode. It's this sort of dedication and creativity that will make players more forgiving of the three-game strategy when it comes to the single-player, although there are almost no details about the Zerg or Protoss campaigns yet.

The game will be noob-friendly

"We expect a lot of casual WOW players to go, 'Hmm, I want to check out StarCraft 2,' and we want to help those players." Chris Sigaty told 1up.
"We want to cut down on the amount of newbies jumping into a match and
getting their asses handed to them as their initial online experience."
So what steps have they made to make that happen? The tech tree can now
be viewed from within the game, and includes information about what
units are used to counter each character or vehicle, as well as what
units it's strong against.

Replays will include much more information, with players being able to toggle overlays that detail actions per minute, number of units created, number of units killed, and much more information about how each player is performing. Every time you play a game the replay is automatically saved as a tiny file, so you'll be able to save a huge number of matches and take a look at your performance.

There will also be Challenges that explain certain concepts to players through in-game scenarios, such as how to effectively counter certain units, how to efficiently gather resources, that sort of thing. By playing Challenges, gamers will be able to get their heads around higher-level tactics and strategies, making them better equipped to play online. There will also be casual leagues for those who want a friendly game online.

It's most likely going to completely awesome

With this new rush of information available, it seems as if Blizzard has upped the quality and number of features on damn near every aspect of the game. While there are still more questions than answers when it comes to the new Battle.net system, we're getting close to learning more as the beta looks to be getting closer. Blizzard has promised us four beta keys so we can play inter-office Ars Technica 2v2, so you can expect more coverage as soon as the beta hits. Until then, fiendish anticipation.